Farm Track in Winter

Susan Osborne

Painting, for me, is active contemplation. As I walk around in the landscapes of the Cambridgeshire Fens, I keep my eyes open for an epiphany. Moses was stopped in his tracks by a burning bush; I just get an orange hedge in winter sunshine, or a line of beauty in a farm-track swerve. I take what I've seen back home and gloat on it: I use pencil and paper to find the essential lines; I relish the paint, squidging and marking and scratching. As I sink into the process of painting, the original power of what I saw transfers in my imagination to the painted surface. I have done various kinds of work: as an English teacher, with older people, in refugee support and children's work, in caring for my family, and now as a psychotherapist. Painting has been my constant.

Solo shows: 'What happens when you look'. All Saints Langham, Rutland, August 2020. Loving what is left'. Studio exhibition, Pitt Building, Cambridge July 2022. 'Fen and Beyond'. Ramsey Abbey Glass House, Ramsey, Huntingdon. December 2022. 'Being and Seeing'. St Thomas a Becket Church, Ramsey Huntingdon.